Transitory shocks and long-term human capital accumulation: the impact of conflict on physical health in Peru

The recent literature on human capital highlights the importance of investments during the first few years after birth as a determinant of economic outcomes later in life, including labour productivity. This paper assesses the relationship between conflict exposure -a transitory, aggregate, shock- and early nutrition. The relationship between conflict exposure and human capital outcomes can be put into doubt due to the endogenous nature of conflict. In this paper I use a rich dataset that permits me to trace the intensity of a country-specific, large-scale, conflict across regions and over time at the monthly frequency over a 20-year period. I use this data to link conflict exposure prevalent around the time of birth to child-level outcomes of birth cohorts born over an analogous time period. The identification strategy exploits differences in the intensity of exposure between siblings in turn determined by year-month of birth. Results show that, on average, early exposure to conflict did not have an effect on infant mortality but had large negative effects on short-term nutritional outcomes, particularly for the poor. These results suggest that, unless compensatory investments were at place, the Peruvian conflict might have had long-term effects on human capital accumulation through a nutritional channel.Health Production, Human Capital, Conflict, Children

A Policy Switching Approach to Consolidating Load Shedding and Islanding Protection Schemes

In recent years there have been many improvements in the reliability of critical infrastructure systems. Despite these improvements, the power systems industry has seen relatively small advances in this regard. For instance, power quality deficiencies, a high number of localized contingencies, and large cascading outages are still too widespread. Though progress has been made in improving generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure, remedial action schemes (RAS) remain non-standardized and are often not uniformly implemented across different utilities, ISOs, and RTOs. Traditionally, load shedding and islanding have been successful protection measures in restraining propagation of contingencies and large cascading outages. This paper proposes a novel, algorithmic approach to selecting RAS policies to optimize the operation of the power network during and after a contingency. Specifically, we use policy-switching to consolidate traditional load shedding and islanding schemes. In order to model and simulate the functionality of the proposed power systems protection algorithm, we conduct Monte-Carlo, time-domain simulations using Siemens PSS/E. The algorithm is tested via experiments on the IEEE-39 topology to demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves optimal power system performance during emergency situations, given a specific set of RAS policies.Comment: Full Paper Accepted to PSCC 2014 - IEEE Co-Sponsored Conference. 7 Pages, 2 Figures, 2 Table

Early Nutrition and Cognition in Peru: A Within-Sibling Investigation

An extensive literature documents linkages between early nutritional deficiencies and reduced cognitive ability, educational attainment and, ultimately, lower labor market performance. Few of these studies, however, have shown these correlations to be genuinely causal. We reexamine the nutrition and cognition link, applying instrumental variable methods to a sibling-difference specification for a sample of Peruvian pre-school children. We use household shocks and food price changes as instruments. As such our analysis also quantifies the nutritional and cognitive costs of the 2006-08 global food price crisis. We find that there are significant and negative cognitive effects of early childhood nutritional disinvestments: a decrease in Height-for-Age z-score leads to a reduction in the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test score of 17-21 percent. The accumulated deficits are sizeable considering that these children are only 3-6 years old and are yet to enroll in formal schooling, with deficits likely to widen in later years.Health, Nutrition, Cognitive Development, Children, Peru

Effectiveness of the National Program of Complementary Feeding for older adults in Chile on vitamin B12 status in older adults; secondary outcome analysis from the CENEX Study (ISRCTN48153354).

BACKGROUND: Older people are at increased risk of vitamin B12 deficiency and the provision of fortified foods may be an effective way to ensure good vitamin B12 status in later life. AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of a vitamin B12 fortified food provided by a national program of complementary food for older people on plasma vitamin B12 levels. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A random sub-sample of 351 subjects aged 65-67 y from a large cluster randomised controlled trial provided blood samples at baseline and after 24 months of intervention. The intervention arm (10 clusters 186 participants) received a vitamin B12 fortified food designed to deliver 1.4 μg/day, while the control arm did not receive complementary food (10 clusters, 165 participants). Serum vitamin B12 and folate levels determined by radioimmunoassay were used to estimate the effect of intervention on vitamin B12 levels, adjusting for baseline levels and sex. RESULTS: Attrition at 24 months was 16.7% and 23.6% in the intervention and control arms respectively (p = 0.07). Over 24 months of intervention, mean (95% CI) serum vitamin B12 decreased from 392 (359-425) pmol/dL to 357 (300-414) pmol/dL (p < 0.07) in the intervention arm and from 395 (350-440) pmol/dL to 351 (308-395) pmol/dL in the control arm. There was no significant effect of the intervention on folate status. DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that foods fortified with 1.4 μg/daily vitamin B12 as provided by Chile's national programme for older people are insufficient to ensure adequate vitamin B12 levels in this population. Chile has a long and successful experience with nutrition intervention programs; however, the country's changing demographic and nutritional profiles require a constant adjustment of the programs

Snacking behavior in adolescents and adults in the United States

Doctor of PhilosophyDepartment of Food, Nutrition, Dietetics and HealthDelores H. ChambersUnderstanding snacking behavior in adults and adolescents is important for developing effective marketing campaigns and health interventions. This research provides information about the main motivations to consume different snacks in two age groups. An online survey was conducted with 1551 adults. The reported snacks were classified into 11 groups: sweets, salty snacks, baked products, refined grains, beverages, sandwich or wraps, meats, bars/nuts or seeds, fruits, dairy products, and vegetables. Based on the main motivations to be consumed, these snacks were organized in 3 clusters. Cluster 1: “fun for you" snacks included sweets, salty snacks, and baked products. The main motivations associated with this group were price, social image, social norms, sociability, and affect regulation. Cluster 2: “good for you" snacks included vegetables, dairy products, fruits, and bars/nuts & seeds. The main motivations associated with this group were natural concerns, weight control, and health. Cluster 3: included refined grains, beverages, meats, and sandwich or wraps. The main motivations associated with this group were choice and visual appeal. Motivations to consume different snack groups can vary depending on factors such as gender, race/ethnicity, sociodemographic background, and the place where people live. This research also provides information about the motivations to consume different snack groups based on gender, ethnicity, U.S. region, and annual household income. Results showed that liking and choice were the strongest motivations to consume snacks in all four groups. Convenience, natural concerns, need & hunger, health, weight control, habits, pleasure, and traditional eating were the main motivations to consume “good for you” snacks such as dairy products, fruits, bars, nuts & seeds and were mentioned differently depending on each group. Pleasure, affect regulation, sociability, social image, habits, traditional eating, need & hunger, and visual appeal were related to “fun for you snacks¨ such as salty snacks, baked products, and sweets and were also mentioned differently depending on each group. Snacking behavior in adolescents is a complex process that can be influenced by many different factors. To understand this behavior a study was conducted using an online survey with 1050 adolescents from 13 to 17 years old. This survey included questions related to the snacking behavior of this population using a slightly modified version of the Eating Motivation Survey (TEMS) and the Kids-Palatable Eating Motives Scale. These snack groups were grouped into clusters (three clusters in total) based on their similarity with the 16 motivations from TEMS and the Kids-Palatable Eating Motives. Cluster 1 was considered the group of “fun for you” snacks. These snacks were associated with the following motivations: liking, pleasure, affect regulation, sociability, and social image. Cluster 2 was considered the group of “good for you” snacks and was associated with motivations liking, weight control, natural concerns, health, and traditional eating. Cluster 3 was considered the group of “mixture snacks” and was associated with the motivations of liking, need & hunger, and visual appeal. Knowing the motivations to consume certain types of snacks is important because it can help in developing the right strategies for adults and adolescents based on the reasons that are important for each group

Impacto del programa Juntos sobre nutrición temprana

Una extensa literatura sugiere que inversiones en etapas tempranas del ciclo de vida tienen implicancias de largo plazo sobre el capital humano acumulado, lo que a su vez tiene efectos sobre el rendimiento de los individuos en el mercado laboral. En este trabajo se explora el impacto del programa de transferencias condicionadas Juntos sobre el estado nutricional de niños menores de 5 años. Con dicho fin, se aplican dos metodologías: (a) emparejamiento de hogares en base a características observables y doble-diferencia con emparejamiento; y, (b) estimaciones con efectos fijos distritales y maternos. Los resultados hallados sugieren que el programa habría reducido la incidencia de desnutrición crónica extrema. Asimismo, condicionado a estar afiliado al programa, se detecta efectos positivos según el tiempo de exposición al programa para aquellos niños nacidos en hogares con madres relativamente bien educadas.Evaluación de Impacto, Salud Infantil, Perú

Data matching: Construction of COVID-19 - related variables for Young Lives Peru

This Technical Note outlines the COVID-19 matched dataset from the Young Lives cohorts in Peru created by the Young Lives team. The matched dataset combines COVID-19 administrative data with the extensive longitudinal data set from the Young Lives study in Peru. The authors document the steps taken to create a set of variables that measure the number of COVID-19 cases, deaths and vaccine doses applied in the districts where Young Lives participants reside, along with the duration of the lockdown periods they endured. They collected administrative data and integrated it with the Young Lives datasets from Call 2 (August to October 2020), Call 3 (November to December 2020), Call 4 (August to September 2021) and Call 5 (November to December 2021). This data matching process enables assessment of how the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on participants development outcomes, including their health, well-being, and their education and work lives

Presentation by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas: College of Fine Arts

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T lymphocyte responses to flaviviruses — diverse cell populations affect tendency toward protection and disease

Dengue virus (DENV), Yellow Fever virus, West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus and Zika virus are medically important flaviviruses transmitted to humans by mosquitoes and circulate in overlapping geographic areas. Cross-reactive immune responses have been demonstrated among the flaviviruses, particularly the four DENV serotypes. The immunological imprint left by a flavivirus infection can therefore have profound effects on the responses to subsequent infections. In this review we summarize recent research focusing on T cell responses to DENV using clinical samples from prospective cohort studies in Asia. These data suggest that durability of different T cell populations after natural infection or vaccination is an important consideration for the outcome of subsequent flavivirus exposures and we argue for continued investigation in the context of longitudinal cohort studies

Development of a coffee lexicon and determination of differences among brewing methods

Master of ScienceFood Science InstituteEdgar Chambers, IVA total of more than 100 different coffee samples from 14 countries around the world were used to create a coffee lexicon. The first list of terms consisted of 74 attributes that were developed from the review of 13 samples from Colombia. A second development incorporated an existing commercial lexicon and examined an additional of 72 coffee samples from different parts of the world. Validation sessions were also performed with 20 samples from the area of San Adolfo, Colombia. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to mapped the scores obtained during the validation phase of the terminology, the panelists were able to described specific characteristics that were present in the coffee samples such as sweet, nutty and fruity notes, as well as the differentiation of notes such as burnt, smoky, astringent, acrid and bitter. At the end of the process, a total of 110 attributes and their references were identified. Another study was conducted to identify the sensory properties of three coffee samples using four different brewing methods. The coffee samples were prepared using a consumer drip coffee maker, a home or food service automated espresso machine, a coffee grader “cupping” method and a filtered infusion method. The cupping method produced a higher intensity for the “roasted” flavor attribute across all samples. This method also tended to produce higher scores for burnt and acrid than other brewing methods. Flavor and aroma attributes both varied with preparation methods, but not necessarily in the same ways. The drip brewing method showed the most differences in the three coffee samples for aroma, flavor and aftertaste attributes, but other methods may be appropriate depending on the objectives of each study